


In the blueberry wood

by Enide_Dear



Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Little Legolas makes a new friend, and accidentally causes the Wild Hunt, inspired by a swedish childrens song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:13:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27261796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enide_Dear/pseuds/Enide_Dear
Summary: Little Legolas is walking in the woods when he meets a strange bear. Mostly just cute.
Relationships: Legolas Greenleaf & Beorn
Comments: 4
Kudos: 48





	In the blueberry wood

Elven princes did not get lost in the woods, and therefor Legolas was not lost. That's what he told himself, firmly, as he looked up at the tall unfamiliar trees around him and clutched his basket harder to his chest. The blue colour had stained his fingers and mouth but not his clothes. Little elven princes were easier to wash off than fine silk clothing, that's what his Ada said and so he was careful with his cloth. So careful indeed that he'd left his tunic on a dry rock somewhere when he'd taken a break to eat half the blue berries he'd picket and his boots were by a stream somewhere because he'd wanted to feel mud between his toes. They were very clean. He was not. Ada would be proud. He preened a little at the thought. 

Legolas knew there were places in the forest that were bad and that those places crept closer to his home for every year. He'd heard about it since he barely reached his Ada's knee and now, when he reached all the way up to his elbow, he knew even more. He knew to stay on the path to avoid Spiders and other creatures because there his Ada's magic could protect him. And he knew to leave the path in the rare risk of meeting a Man or even worse a Dwarf because the forest would protect him and hide him. The only stranger he was allowed to talk to was Radagast. Legolas liked Radagast. He always had hedgehogs in his pockets which must surely be a Maia magic. 

Curiosity drove him on, along the path. It almost looked like the forest opened up, a little further on. He wondered what that would look like, a world without trees. He wasn't sure he'd like it. 

He felt danger before he saw or heard or even smelled it; the forest seemed to rustle a warning but one he didn't recognize. Unsure if he should run or hide or climb, he froze in the middle of the path as something huge barged through the bushes. 

An enormous, shaggy head poked out through the leaves and roared, loud enough to rattle his little frame. Small dark eyes peered at him; a wet nose snuffled. Teeth large enough to bite him in two in a single bite gleamed and the claws were as long as his lower arms. 

Legolas heart beat fast. it was a bear! But not a normal bear, such as he'd met before. Even young as he was, he knew something was different with this animal; not just its size but the sense of sentience about it. Like any wood elf he could commune with birds and beasts, but this was different. This creature was as intelligent as he was. 

Very slowly so as to not startle it, he held out his basket of berries. 

The bear- thing snuffles at him and makes his short hair blow out behind him like a golden cloud. It is all very exciting and he almost fell over when the bear puts its huge head into the basket and started to devour the berries. 

"Were you hungry? You like berries don't you?" He didn't scratch it behind its fuzzy ear even though he really wanted to, because that would feel disrespectful. Instead he waited patiently until the blueberries are all gone and the bear-thing looks up at him again. He smiled but then, something happened to the bear. It starts to NOT look like a bear and starts to look like....to look like...

A shaggy bearded face looks down on him, with wild sad eyes. Legolas felt like he inhaled enough air to almost explode before he manages to scream in horror at the top of his lounges:

"Dwarf!"

A few hours later he is sitting by Beorns table with a large tankard of milk and honey in front of him, eagerly drinking the sweet drink. 

"I am sorry I called you a dwarf." He sayed to the skinchanger who just nodded quietly back. "My Ada told me not to talk to dwarves."

"I understand. I have no love of dwarves either." Beorn played with two white mice running over his hands. When one mouse ran over to Legolas and the elfling started playing with it to, the skinchanger smiled. "Have you ever met any?"

"Dwarves? No." The mouse is running on his arm now and Legolas giggled. "Ada says they could be dangerous to elves."

"Hrm." It is odd, thinks Beorn, to have a child by the table. Elven children are incredibly rare although of course not as rare as his own people. There are still elven children. There will never be any more skinchanger children, no chubby little cubs to tumble around his feet. This child is very unlike the children of his own people; he is already slender and graceful and very eloquent for all that he is no taller than a five year old man child. He might be twenty five years old, or forty for all that Beorn knows, but he is still very much a child. "Would you like to see my bees?"

Legolas would and spends the afternoon dancing with the bees on the meadow. He greets the ponies and the dogs and all the other creatures living with Beorn and Beorn feels, for the first time in centuries a kind of peace. 

But when evening falls, they see thundercloud gathering over Mirkwood, rushing in from all around. The trees shake so hard in the wind they can see it from Beorns cottage and the booming sound rattle the buildings. There is lightning but no rain. 

"Oh I need to go back!" Jumping from foot to foot, Legolas looks like he would run all the several miles back on his little legs. He probably could. "Something happened! Ada is angry!"

Beorn looks at the manifested wrath over Mirkwood. 

"I'll take you there."

The elves storm through Mirkwood like lightning themselves, the sound of hooves and cloven feet of steeds shaking the earth as much as the thunder above. Rage shakes the trees. The elven prince is lost. 

Thranduil presses them on under the storm until suddenly something cuts through his fear and anger. With a raised hand he stops the others. 

The sound of singing and snuffling. The singing he recognized immediately. The snuffling he did not. 

The elves slowed to a stop and waited under the storm ridden trees as the sounds came closer. 

Around the bend came a sight that made all of them, including the King, drop their jaws. Their tiny prince, smeared with berry juice and honey and singing to the top of his lounges, came riding towards them astride a bear so enormous it must truly be one of the lost skin changers. Legolas had berries in his hair and the basked that had once contained blueberries was now dripping honey on his pants, the only part of his clothing still on him. He shone up when he saw his father and jumped down gracefully from his mount, dripping honey on the coarse fur. 

"Ada, ada! I made a new friend!" He ran up to his father and was quickly whiskered up on the steed and locked in a fierce embrace. "Ada, you'll get honey on your clothes!" Thranduil only hugged him closer. 

"King Thranduil," the skin changer had changed back to his not-quite-Man like appearance and looked on the gathered elves with his sad eyes. "It has been a long time since the Wild Hunt rode."

"Skin changer," Thranduil managed to compose himself a little. "I owe you my sons' life. Name any price..."

"No, no." Beorn shook his head. "He was perfectly fine when I found him. He would have found his way home safely without me, but..." Beorn searched for words. "He was not afraid of me. And he offered me food. I wanted to return his hospitality. It is my fault he was late home for supper, and that is all."

Thranduil gave him a look that said he thought there was a lot more to it, a lot more about children and hope and future, but wisely said nothing. 

"At least let me host a feast for you."

Beorn shook his head. 

"I do not like large companies. But....if the prince would ever want to visit me again....I would appreciate it."

"I will bring strawberries next time!" Legolas chimed in from inside his Ada's coat. 

Beorn almost smiled. 

"I would like that. I will tell my bees."

Without any parting words he changed back into the bear and lumbered off the way he'd come from. The elves sat silently for a while and above them the thunderclouds dispersed. 

"You have made strong friend today, little leaf." Thranduil said as they turned back towards home.

"I can make friends with anyone!" Legolas smiled up at him, sticky and happy. "I bet I could even make friends with a dwarf!"

A strange kind of shudder went through the woods and Thranduil shook with residual magic. Legolas looked up with wide, concerned eyes and he tried to smile back. His magic had never been of the foreseeing kind, but with all the power he'd gathered to find his son - enough to call the Wild Hunt - apparently something had happened. He knew a foreshadowing when it hit him and it left him almost as fearful as the sudden disappearance of Legolas from the woods had done. 

"Let's just...keep to the skin changer for now." He smiled back, rather wobbly. A small measure of peace returned to him when Legolas nodded and sighed happily, leaning his head against his chest and promptly falling asleep. Thranduil stroke the golden hair and vowed to himself to imprison every dwarf that ever dared pass over his borders.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the swedish childrens song Mors Lilla Olle because I thought it was cute :)
> 
> Approx LotR translation:
> 
> Ada's little Legolas walked in the woods  
> Rosy cheeked and with sunshine in his eyes  
> His lips were blue of blueberry juice  
> 'oh if only I didn't have to walk here alone'
> 
> Growls in the bushes, who is walking there?  
> The bushes part, it seems to be dog?  
> Its fur is shaggy but Legolas is happy  
> 'Oh a friend, who delightful, Mae Govannen!'
> 
> Pets the bear with tiny hands,   
> Offers his berries, 'please have a taste'  
> The bears devours all there is  
> 'Oh it looks like you like berries'
> 
> Ada sees them, and gave up a shout  
> The bear runs away, there is no more play  
> 'Oh Ada, why did you scare away my friend?  
> Ada please tell him to come again'


End file.
